at demand and being reproduced in massive quantities by his workshop and imitators" (Ettlinger and Ettlinger 11).
The rise of the fanatical preacher Frate Girolamo da Savonarola in the period 1489-94, and his virtual rule over Florence from 1494-97, is known to have influenced the course of Botticelli's art, though the extent of his influence is controversial. Vasari claimed that Botticelli "was a follower of Savonarola, and this was why he gave up painting and then fell into considerable distress as he had no other source of income," only to be rescued before starving to death by the generosity of the Medici and others (1:227). But Vasari's account of the last two decades of Botticelli's career is patently false, since numerous works can be dated from 1490 to 1510, when Botticelli died.
Botticelli's brother Simone was an adherent of Savonarola but there is little direct evidence that the painter himself was an ardent follower. Yet the changes in Botticelli's later style have usually been taken as evidence that he had reformed his style in resp
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